#Digitize... In a market undergoing digital disruption, many companies continue, out of inertia, to use physical, paper-based archiving to manage their day-to-day business. Many Swiss companies, however, have begun the change by opting for digital storage solutions to improve productivity and benefit from all the advantages of the digital revolution.
But many still think: "since we've always done it this way, and it works pretty well, there's not necessarily any good reason to digitize documents carefully filed away in red, yellow and green federal binders...".
On a more serious note, some organizations find themselves obliged to digitize their content, whether following an audit or as part of the application of an ISO standard. But to help convince you, here are some really good reasons to take the plunge :
9 reasons to digitize your business documents
#Ubiquity: Access your documents wherever you are.
The cloud has become a matter of course for all business approaches, so why not for your documents? Once digitized, your content can be accessed from any location via a network connection, which can of course be secure (VPN).
#Multiplicity: Multiply accesses to the same document
What could be more annoying than not being able to consult a document because another employee is hogging it. The photocopier then runs at full capacity, allowing several people to work on the same contract. With a digital document, once stored on a server and in a dedicated application, several people can access the same document.
#Protection: protect your sources from natural and unnatural damage...
La numérisation vous offre une sécurité évidente contre l’incendie, l’inondation, la perte, ou la destruction de dossiers. Cela paraît évident, mais les entreprises qui ont dû traverser ce type de mésaventure peuvent toutes témoigner du risque que cela entraîne sur la pérennité de leur société.
Au-delà des catastrophes on peut aisément imaginer les risques mineurs mais quotidiens de déclassement ou de perte de documents. La numérisation est finalement le premier Recovery plan que votre société doit mettre en place.
#Timeline: Keep track of your document history
With paper, it's easy to keep everything. But a document is made to live on, and countless modifications generate too much storage of documents that are already obsolete. With digital, you keep a dated record of all changes made, so you can focus on the essentials. Get away from the mixed paper and digital mode that often leads to confusion.
#Release: Free yourself from format problems
A great deal of content is stored in disparate formats (maps, microfilms, microfiche, documents in original formats, etc.), requiring special readers or space. Once digitized, they can be accessed via a single device: your screen.
#Storing: Save big space
At today's real estate prices, a square meter is a square meter. Consider that your 10 storage cabinets will fit into a 30 cm3 server, and you'll easily understand the advantages of transforming an archive room into an office for a new employee, or a meeting room, etc...
#Productivity: Save time and money
The time spent retrieving certain documents is obviously considered working time, but isn't it outdated to sometimes walk dozens or even hundreds of meters (yes, it happens) to fetch a contract or an HR personnel file? Some companies even keep their archives in storage warehouses, which of course means going back and forth to consult older files.
#Discretion: limit access
Access to any digital platform can be easily secured. You can now restrict access to certain documents for certain employees. For example, salary slips are only accessible to authorized HR personnel.
#Omniscience: search by keyword at last
Thanks to OCR, it's now easier to find information hidden in a file whose content, or even existence, you've forgotten. Keyword searching is only made possible by scanning.
What documents can you scan?
Everything is possible, and it's all a question of choice. Companies in the watchmaking and luxury goods sectors have decided to digitize most of their historical and current documents for communication and marketing purposes. It's a good idea to keep a record of your company's activities, if only for the sake of your corporate history.
In practice, every department can benefit from digitization.
Accounting department (invoices, contracts, etc.)
HR department (personnel files, employment contracts, pay slips, etc.)
Administrative department (standard documents)
Once this process is complete, switch to EDM (electronic document management) and set up a daily workflow for scanning all your incoming documents
Ask specialists in document digitization
Data Conversion Service SA is a company specialized in IT and administrative outsourcing, and has been carrying out digitization assignments for all types of documents since the 2000s, in Geneva and throughout Switzerland. Contact our teams to request an audit.